Editing The Circus (1928 film) (section)

==Reception==
[[File:Charlie Chaplin in The Circus, ad from Motion Picture News, January to March 1927 (page 25 crop).jpg|left|thumb|Advertisement from 1927 [[Motion Picture News]]]]
''The Circus'' was well received by audiences and critics, and while its performance at the box office was good, it earned less than ''[[The Gold Rush]]'' (1925).<ref name="Maland">{{cite book|last=Maland|first=Charles J.|year=1991|title=Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-02860-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/chaplinamericanc0000mala}}</ref>  In North America, the film earned $1,820,000 in domestic theatrical rentals.<ref name=ChaplinBook>{{cite book|first=Charles J.|last=Maland|title= Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image|date=1989|publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0-691-09440-3|quote=The United Artists balance sheet of domestic film rentals through the end of 1931 show that ''The Gold Rush'' had accumulated $2.15 million in rentals, while ''The Circus'' had garnered $1.82 million.}}</ref> Some critics consider it and ''The Gold Rush'' to be Chaplin's two best comedies.<ref>{{cite book|year=2004|chapter=Charles Spencer Chaplin|title=Encyclopedia of World Biography|publisher=Gale|edition=2nd|volume=3|pages=438–440}}</ref>

In ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Mordaunt Hall]] reported that it was "likely to please intensely those who found something slightly wanting in ''The Gold Rush'', but at the same time it will prove a little disappointing to those who reveled in the poetry, the pathos and fine humor of his previous adventure." Hall went on to write that there were passages "that are undoubtedly too long and others that are too extravagant for even this blend of humor. But Chaplin's unfailing imagination helps even when the sequence is obviously slipping from grace."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hall |first=Mordaunt |date=January 9, 1928 |title=Movie Review |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E03EFD71738E23ABC4153DFB7668383639EDE |journal=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York |access-date=November 16, 2014 }}</ref>

''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' ran a very positive review, stating that "For the picture patrons, all of them, and for broad, laughable fun – Chaplin's best. It's Charlie Chaplin's best fun maker for other reasons: because it is the best straightaway story he has employed for broad film making, and because here his fun stuff is nearly all entirely creative or original in the major point."<ref>{{cite journal |date=January 11, 1928 |title=The Circus |journal=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |location=New York |publisher=Variety, Inc. |page=16 }}</ref>

Commenting on the long wait for the film's release, ''[[Film Daily]]'' wrote that "it was worth it, for, if you are prone to favor superlatives here is an opportunity to coin several fresh ones" and that Chaplin was "as inimitable today as he was in the days of his two-reelers."<ref>{{cite journal |date=January 9, 1928 |title=The Circus |journal=[[Film Daily|The Film Daily]] |page=1 }}</ref>

In ''[[The New Yorker]]'', Oliver Claxton wrote that the film was "a little disappointing. There are one or two moments when it is very funny, but there are long stretches when it is either mild or dull."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Claxton |first=Oliver |date=January 14, 1928 |title=The Current Cinema |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |location=New York |publisher=F-R Publishing Company |page=65 }}</ref>